Accessibility

Expanded VoiceOver support for iBooks iBooks supports the reading of EPUB documents and rich, interactive Multi-Touch textbooks with VoiceOver.

Improved reading and navigation in Safari and Mail Safari and Mail use the same text navigation conventions, so you can move through both apps more fluidly. Mail also supports mail thread indentations for better navigation through multiparty threads.

Faster access to the web rotor and Item Chooser in Safari Web browsing is streamlined with faster access to the web rotor and Item Chooser, so you can move through web pages more efficiently.

Improved Alex voice Alex has been expanded to provide a smoother and more human-sounding experience for VoiceOver and Text-to-Speech users — bringing improved pronunciation, better word synthesis and more meaningful intonation.

New customised panels for Switch Control Customised panel editing includes the ability to select additional background colours for panel buttons, and to speak or play a specific sound when a panel button is highlighted.

Press-and-hold switch actions With OS X Yosemite, you can use your switch for press-and-hold switch actions, so you can repeatedly press whichever onscreen button is selected.

Dictation editing and formatting commands OS X Yosemite adds over 50 editing and formatting commands to Dictation. So you can turn on Dictation and tell your Mac to bold a paragraph, delete a sentence or replace a word. You can change your mind as many times as you want to.

New Dictation languages You can dictate in over 40 languages supported by OS X Yosemite.

Differentiate without using colour To support individuals who are colour blind, OS X Yosemite provides visual cues for changes in status.

AirDrop

AirDrop with iOS AirDrop now works between Mac and iOS. With just a few clicks on your Mac, you can take a file from any folder and use AirDrop to send it to a nearby Mac or iOS device.

Receive files at any time AirDrop in OS X Yosemite allows you to receive files even when AirDrop is not selected in the Finder. You can choose to make yourself available to those in your contacts or to everyone. When a file is sent to you, it appears as a notification. Click to download the file.

Automatic download When you use AirDrop to send a file between two devices that have the same Apple ID, the file is automatically downloaded on the receiving device, making it quick and easy to send files between two of your own devices.

Calendar

Day view The new Day view puts the focus on today’s events. The full-height inspector makes it easy to access all the details for an event.

Event autofill Calendar in OS X Yosemite makes it easy to create new events. As you enter the title, Calendar suggests a name based on previous events. When you choose a suggestion, all the details are retained, including attendees and location. You can add a day and time to the title, such as ‘tomorrow at noon’, and Calendar automatically puts the meeting in the correct place.

Dial a phone number Calendar automatically detects phone numbers. Just click a phone number, and it will be dialled using your iPhone.

Family Sharing calendar A family calendar is automatically set up in Calendar for all members in the Family Sharing account through iCloud. Each member can see and edit events.

Continuous scrolling in Year view You can scroll from year to year by swiping up and down on the mouse or trackpad.

Handoff With Handoff, an event or date you were viewing on one device can be opened on another.

Design

App icons Updated app icons give the Dock a harmonious look — yet make it easy to quickly spot the right app.

New system font OS X Yosemite has a modern, easy-to-read font throughout the system that looks great on a Retina display.

Full-screen button The green button now takes the app full screen, eliminating the need for an extra full-screen button in the toolbar.

Translucency The translucent sidebar in your active window hints at what’s behind it, giving you helpful context for where your apps are. Toolbars also have a touch of translucency, so you get a glimpse of the content behind them.

Dark menu bar and Dock You can now choose a dark menu bar and Dock, perfect for anyone working in professional photo and video environments.

FaceTime

New design A new look in FaceTime makes it even easier to start and accept audio and video calls.

Make a phone call When your iPhone is nearby, you can dial any phone number to start a voice call straight from FaceTime on your Mac.

Enter a phone number To make a call, you can enter any phone number in the search field in FaceTime.

iCloud call history Your call history is now synced to all your devices, so if you miss a call on your iPhone, you can easily return the call from your Mac.

Customised ringtones Set customised ringtones to help you identify incoming calls. Assign a unique ringtone for an individual contact or assign ringtones to distinguish an audio call from a video call.

Answer from login screen When you receive a FaceTime call on your Mac and the screen is locked, you can answer the call from the login screen without having to enter your password.

Call waiting When you receive a FaceTime call while you’re having another FaceTime call with someone else, you can put your current conversation on hold and answer the incoming call.

Family Sharing

Set up Family Sharing account You can set up Family Sharing in System Preferences. The family organiser can invite up to five other family members to join the group. Members will receive an email, and once they accept, they will be part of the family group.

Shared purchases Family members get immediate access to each other’s downloaded music, movies, books and apps on their Mac.

Ask permission You can set up accounts for your children that require them to ask permission before they purchase something. When they ask permission, you will get a notification on your Mac or iOS device, and you can choose to view the item in the store. If you approve, it will be downloaded on the child’s device.

Shared family photo album A shared photo album is automatically set up for each family member. Members can share photos, videos and comments. And the album stays up to date automatically.

Shared family calendar A family calendar is automatically set up in Calendar for each member in the Family Sharing group. Members can see, edit and add new events.

Shared family reminders The Reminders app automatically includes a shared reminders list for each member of the family. Each person can view and edit the list.

Finder

iCloud Drive iCloud Drive is conveniently located in the Favourites section of the Finder sidebar. It’s also available from app Open and Save panels. And iOS app document libraries are accessible from your Mac.

Batch rename Quickly rename a set of files in the Finder. Select the files and choose Rename. You can also add customised text and numbers to each filename.

Drag tags to the Dock You can now drag a tag from the Finder sidebar to the Dock for quick access to all the files with that tag.

Handoff

Pick up where you left off When your devices are near each other, they can automatically hand off activities to each other. For example, if you’re writing an email on your iPhone and walk up to your Mac, your email is ready for you to pick up on your Mac — exactly where you left off.

Mac to iOS and iOS to Mac You can hand off an activity from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad, or from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac.

App to website Handoff works between iOS apps and Safari on OS X Yosemite. You can start an activity using an app on your iPhone and pick it up on the app’s corresponding website in Safari on your Mac.

iCloud Drive

Store any file Store any file in iCloud and access it from your Mac, iPhone, iPad or even a Windows PC.

Access from all devices You can access the latest versions of your files in iCloud Drive from your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Windows PC.

Organise files The iCloud Drive folder works just like any other folder in OS X. Drag and drop to add files, organise with folders and tags, and even search using Spotlight.

See iOS files iOS app document libraries are accessible from your Mac, so you can open a picture you drew on your iPad and edit it on your Mac.

Available offline Files in iCloud Drive are available on your Mac even when you don’t have an Internet connection. Any changes you make to a file while offline are automatically synced as soon as your Mac is back online.

Mail

Mail Drop Mail Drop makes it easy to send large attachments — perfect for sharing videos, presentations and folders of images via email. With Mail Drop, you can send messages up to 5GB.

Markup You can annotate images and fill out forms right there in Mail. When someone sends you a file that you need to fill out or mark up, you don’t need to leave Mail, save a new file or add it back to your email conversation — just annotate it in your reply.

Fill out PDF forms Quickly fill out a PDF form without having to leave Mail.

Add signature Easily add your own signature to an image or PDF form, right there in Mail. Use the trackpad to draw your signature or capture it using the camera on your Mac. Save your signature to use later with Markup or when filling out forms in Preview.

Annotate an image The Markup toolbar makes it simple to add text and shapes to images and PDFs. You can even use your trackpad to draw shapes, and Markup will intelligently tidy them up.

Handoff Mail works with Handoff, so you can start an email on one device and pick it up on another.

Improved search Search in Mail recognises spelling errors and offers suggestions based on the correct spelling.

Notification Centre

Add new widgets You can find widgets from third-party developers in the Mac App Store. They appear in the widget drawer — just drag them into Today view.

Customisable Customise Today view with handy widgets. When the widget drawer is open, click the green “+” to the right of a widget to add it to Today view. Drag widgets around so they appear exactly where you want them.

Calendar The Calendar widget gives you a glimpse of today’s schedule.

Weather See the weather for cities you choose. Cities you’ve selected in the Weather app on your iOS device appear on your Mac and vice versa.

Stocks See up-to-the-minute stock and index data. Stock selections you make in the Stocks app on your iOS device sync to Today view on your Mac and vice versa.

World Clock See the current time for the cities you choose. You can add as many clocks as you want.

Calculator Make quick calculations no matter where you are in OS X, even a full-screen app.

Social Send a message or post updates to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Reminders See which reminders are due. Click one to mark it as completed.

Phone calls

Receive incoming calls Pick up calls to your iPhone from your Mac. If you’re working on your Mac in one room and your iPhone is in another room, you can answer the call without touching your iPhone.

Make calls Make a phone call from your Mac. Calls are relayed through your iPhone using your existing number. They’ll ring through to your recipient just like any other phone call.

Dial from anywhere Dial a number anywhere you see it on your Mac. Just click the number in Contacts, Calendar, Mail, Messages or Spotlight. Or select it in Safari or any document.

Ringtones All the customised ringtones on your iPhone ring exactly the same way on your Mac. And you can set additional customised ringtones in Contacts to help you identify who’s calling. Assign a unique ringtone for an individual contact, or even assign ringtones to distinguish a FaceTime call from a phone call.

Call waiting If someone rings while you’re already on a call, you can hold your current conversation and answer the incoming call, just as you would on your iPhone.

Merge calls You can merge two calls to start a conference call.

Decline with message If you need to decline a call, you can choose to send a text message to the person or set a reminder to call back.

Same Wi-Fi network You can make and receive phone calls from your Mac when your Mac and iPhone are on the same Wi-Fi network. It works even if your phone is charging in another room.

Handoff to phone If you start a call on your Mac but need to head out, you can keep the call going on your iPhone.

Answer from login screen If a call comes in while the screen on your Mac is sleeping, you can accept the call from the login screen.

Keypad tones If you need to key in numbers to proceed during a phone call, simply enter them using your Mac keyboard.

Safari

Streamlined toolbar The streamlined new toolbar frees up more space for your websites — particularly convenient for those with a Mac notebook.

Favourites view With Favourites view, your top websites are easy to spot and simple to get to. Click the smart search field, and a grid of icons from your favourite websites appears.

Scrollable tabs When you have many tabs open, you can scroll through them in the tab bar with a two-finger horizontal swipe.

Tab view One click shows your open tabs — even those on your other devices. Tabs from the same website appear grouped together to make them easier to manage. Select one with a click.

Close tabs on other devices In Tab view, you can close tabs that are open on another device.

Search open tabs You can search your open tabs by URL or by a term in the web page title. Just start typing your search term in Tab view, and Safari finds matching tabs.

Quick Website Search Quick Website Search in OS X Yosemite makes it simple to search the sites you browse most. For example, if you’ve searched for a business on yelp.com, Safari gives you the option to search the Yelp site from the smart search field without having to navigate to the yelp.com web page first.

RSS in the sidebar You can add RSS feeds from the websites you’re viewing to Shared Links, making them easy to get to from the sidebar.

Import data from other browsers You can import your history, bookmarks and website login information from Chrome and Firefox into Safari.

Private Browsing window You can open a separate Safari window for Private Browsing while keeping other Safari windows in the regular browsing mode. When you use a Private Browsing window, your history isn’t saved, your tabs don’t appear on your other devices, and all cookies and other data from websites you visit are deleted when you close the window.

DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo is now a built-in option in the smart search field. DuckDuckGo does not track users or store users’ personal information and search queries.

Stronger cookie blocking Safari has a new, stronger option for third-party cookie blocking. The “Allow from current website only” setting in the Safari Privacy pane blocks all cookies that aren’t from the website you’re currently on — even if those third-party cookies are from a website you’ve visited before.

iCloud history iCloud keeps your browsing history up to date in Safari on your Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, so you can always access web pages you’ve visited, no matter which device you’re using.

Sharing recents The Share button in the Safari toolbar provides a shortcut for sending links to the people you frequently share with. It even remembers how you shared with a person, whether via Mail or Messages. Just select the person to share with them again.

Customised history clearing Safari makes it easy to clear your browsing history for the last hour or day.

Frequently visited sites Your frequently visited sites are displayed below your favourites — just drag one up to promote it to Favourites.

Handoff website Handoff makes it easy to pass web pages between your Mac and iOS devices. So you can start reading a page on your Mac and pick it up on your iPad with just a swipe.

Native support for popular video websites You can watch most YouTube videos and content from other video sites in Safari without plug-ins.

WebGL Safari supports WebGL, a web technology that allows developers to deliver 3D experiences in the browser without a plug-in.

Power-efficient Encryption and signing of SMB 3 connections is fast and power-efficient. Both AES-CCM for encryption and AES-CMAC for signing are dramatically accelerated on modern Intel processors with AES instruction support.

Signing To guard against tampering, SMB 3 adds a signature to every packet transmitted over the wire. SMB 3 uses AES-CMAC to validate the integrity of the signature, ensuring that the packets have not been intercepted, changed or replayed, and that communication between hosts is authenticated and authorised.

Spotlight

New design When you open Spotlight, it now appears front and centre on your screen.

Full previews Handy, informative previews of your Spotlight results appear to the right of the Spotlight window. Scroll through documents, view photos, and see detailed information for contacts and calendar events.

Unit conversion Spotlight now lets you convert units of measure, currency and more, straight from the search field. Simply type what you want to convert, and conversions appear on the right.

Recent documents for apps Spotlight gives you quick access to documents you’ve been working on recently. Enter the app name and click the document to open it.

Improved Chinese and Japanese search Searching in Spotlight using Chinese or Japanese is faster. Results are delivered as you type based on the predicted characters. Spotlight also indexes both Pinyin and Kana forms along with the original characters, allowing results to be delivered faster no matter how the user enters the search.

Other

Log in with Apple ID You can use your Apple ID to log in to your Mac, so you only have to remember one password.

Create new user accounts with Apple ID When you create new users on your Mac, you can enter their Apple IDs, and they simply log in with their passwords. All their iCloud services are automatically set up for them.

Manage extensions A new Extensions pane in System Preferences allows you to choose which extensions appear in the Action and Share menus as well as Today view in Notification Centre. You can even reorder them.

Auto-install OS X updates You can choose to have OS X updates installed automatically after they have been downloaded. Your Mac will restart and appear just as you left it.

Peer-to-peer AirPlay Peer-to-peer AirPlay in OS X Yosemite lets visitors to your home or office quickly and easily connect their Mac or iOS device to your Apple TV without using passwords or connecting to the Wi-Fi network. Apple TV detects their device and makes the connection.

Make movies of an iOS device’s screen Using QuickTime Player in OS X Yosemite, you can record the screen of an iOS device running iOS 8 via the Lightning connector.

Updated system sounds Many of the system sounds have been updated in OS X Yosemite so they sound clearer.

Inline find in Terminal You can search for text in Terminal, and the matching terms will be highlighted in yellow.

Projector Calibrator When using a projector, an onscreen calibrator allows you to fine-tune the projected image for the room’s lighting conditions.

Xsan 4 OS X Yosemite includes the latest version of the Xsan clustered file system and offers simplified setup using Configuration Profiles.